Surrounded by Nature

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A two-bedroom two-bath penthouse at 118 West 79th Street, just steps from the Museum of Natural History, is about to enter the market at $3.995 million. The monthly maintenance is $3,468. The 1,300-square-foot co-op, PHC, is on the 16th floor of the 1925 Emery Roth-designed building and has 1,100 square feet of terrace space. The sellers are the Emmy-nominated producer Wendy Neuss and her former husband, the actor Patrick Stewart, of stage and “Star Trek” renown.

CreditChester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

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A two-bedroom two-bath penthouse at 118 West 79th Street, just steps from the Museum of Natural History, is about to enter the market at $3.995 million. The monthly maintenance is $3,468. The 1,300-square-foot co-op, PHC, is on the 16th floor of the 1925 Emery Roth-designed building and has 1,100 square feet of terrace space. The sellers are the Emmy-nominated producer Wendy Neuss and her former husband, the actor Patrick Stewart, of stage and “Star Trek” renown.

CreditChester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

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The 23-by-30-foot east terrace, planted for privacy, has panoramic views of the open cityscape to the south and views across Central Park to Fifth Avenue.

CreditChester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

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The south terrace runs the entire length of the apartment; it has automatic awnings and an irrigation system for the variety of vegetation, most of it perennials, in the cedar planters.

CreditChester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

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The 29-by-15-foot living room has a wall of glass and raised glass sliders that open onto the south terrace. The countertop of the breakfast bar in the foreground is a single slab of matte black marble; there is also a built-in wine cooler. The glass doors and matching transom at the back of the room connect to the 9-by-7-foot foyer. The original painting over the piano, “Mercy,” is a 1949 oil on linen by the Irish artist Cynthia Knott.

CreditChester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

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The compact kitchen has an east-facing window, a wall of glass cabinetry above black granite counters, and stainless appliances; the sellers bought additional hall space, currently used as a walk-in pantry, to provide the option of expanding the kitchen to 13-by-6 feet.

CreditChester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

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The dining area has south and east exposures; glass sliders open onto the east terrace, where there is a teak table for alfresco dining. The new floors in the apartment are Wenge wood, but the plaster moldings around the doorways and ceiling are original.

CreditChester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

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The 14-by-12-foot second bedroom has two south-facing windows that overlook the terrace; it is currently used as a combination office/jewelry design workshop.

CreditChester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

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The 16-by-14-foot master bedroom has built-in closets, western exposures, and an en-suite marble-and-tile bath. Ceilings throughout the penthouse are nine and a half feet high.

CreditChester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

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The guest bath retains the original marble floors and tile walls with a black ceramic inset; the large window above the tub faces south with city views across the rooftops.

CreditChester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

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A view from the corner of the east terrace looking west shows the ornate exterior of the penthouse and the teak dining set.

A petite and picturesque Upper West Side penthouse, with a lush wraparound terrace that replicates the Old World charm of a European garden yet provides forever views of Central Park and the evolving cityscape to the south, is poised to enter the market at $3.995 million. The monthly maintenance for the light-filled two-bedroom two-bath unit, PHC, is $3,468.

On a “museum block” between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues at 118 West 79th Street, a 16-story 1925 building designed in the Italian Renaissance style by Emery Roth, the 1,300-square-foot penthouse shares the entire top floor and an elevator landing with just one other residence.

Privacy, quiet and an abundance of glass walls, doors and windows are givens: The terrace is reached by south-facing glass sliders from the living room as well as east-facing sliders from the dining area tucked in the southeast corner.

The penthouse has new Wenge wood floors but, for prewar purists, it retains the original plaster door and ceiling moldings throughout, as well as two original marble-and-tile bathrooms.

It is entered from a 9-by-7-foot foyer that opens, through a set of glass French doors with a matching overhead transom, onto the 29-by-15-foot living/entertainment room, where the ceiling is nine and a half feet high. Just off the compact but functional 9-by-6-foot kitchen, which has black granite countertops, a Sub-Zero refrigerator, and an east-facing window, is a breakfast bar with a solid black granite counter, a built-in wine refrigerator and a diamond-cut skylight for additional illumination. The sellers bought additional hall space, currently used as a walk-in pantry, which would allow the expansion of the kitchen to 13-by-6 feet if desired.

The 16-by-14-foot master bedroom has two west-facing windows, a wall of closets and an en-suite bath. The 14-by-12-foot second bedroom, now used as an office and jewelry design studio, has windows that overlook the south terrace and beyond.

The 1,100-square-foot terrace, planted with a variety of mature evergreens, wisteria, hydrangea, willows and a lissome red-leafed Japanese maple tree that sways just outside the living room, is lighted for nighttime entertaining and has automatic irrigation and awnings. It runs the full 50-foot length of the apartment on the south side. The east side of the terrace, set up for alfresco dining, is 23-by-30 feet and overlooks Theodore Roosevelt Park, which surrounds the American Museum of Natural History; in an optical illusion afforded by the heightened vantage point, the greenery of the smaller park seems to segue into the broader expanse of Central Park across to Fifth Avenue.

The sellers, Wendy Neuss, an Emmy-nominated television producer, and her former husband, the actor Patrick Stewart of stage and “Star Trek” fame, bought the apartment for $1.8 million in 2003. Then based in California, they had intended to use it as a pied-à-terre. Instead, the couple, who married in 2000, separated and divorced; Ms. Neuss ultimately left Los Angeles and made the penthouse her full-time residence for a decade. “Circumstances have changed,” she said of their decision to part with it now.

Ms. Neuss said the terrace with its irreplaceable views was the reason they fell for the apartment, where she lives with two cats, Mack and Spencer. “Friends told us about it and said we definitely had to take a look at it,” she said. “We saw it and liked it immediately, but when we came back again and saw the views at night, that clinched it. I could picture having cocktail parties out on the terrace in the magic hour at sunset. And I already knew and liked the neighborhood. You step out the front door and you’re right in the middle of everything. Plus there’s Zabar’s.”

Ms. Neuss planned the terrace landscaping herself, opting for what she describes as a verdant cottage garden feel: “When you’re inside the apartment, it seems like the outdoors comes right in, too, like you’re surrounded by nature.”

The listing agent, Brian Lewis of Halstead Property, said the penthouse would be an unusual urban find in any neighborhood.

“It’s incredibly rare to have a penthouse with this much outdoor space,” Mr. Lewis said. “It’s wide enough so that it’s practical and usable for entertaining and serious gardening, and it has those unsurpassed views where you can actually see the layers of history of the city, from the protected brownstones of the Upper West Side down to the skyscrapers changing the horizon below Central Park South. The horizontal layout of the apartment is also unique; it helps capture all of the views and light.”